They’re helping businesses change the way they work.

Simon Howship and Ben Childs are bringing a shared passion for technology – and what it can do – to their mobile app development company, Common Agency,

They head a 12-strong team based in top-floor offices at Huddersfield’s Media Centre, helping clients across the country to raise brand awareness, strengthen customer engagement and – ultimately – have a positive effect on their turnover and profits by designing and developing mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.

Among its many credits, Common Agency is responsible for the Photobox app on iOS and Android, which enables users to create personalised mugs, calendars, prints, phone cases using photos from Cloud, Instagram, Facebook, Google and Dropbox.

The agency also designed and developed the Moonpig app with features such as video cards and custom text editing.

Now the firm is recruiting to fill up to four new roles this year and is enjoying success with its sales and marketing office in London, which services its clients in the south east of England.

Simon, 47, who lives at Denholme, began his career in retailing with chains including PC World – becoming a regional manager and working across the country – which he says gave him a broad skills set.

“I was a bit of a troubleshooter, going into problem stores that needed turning around,” he says. Among his success stories was transforming an under-performing Bristol store, which subsequently became the first store outside London to achieve £1m turnover in a week.

Simon got involved in technology via the launch of Freeserve and ran a technology business in Canary Wharf for four years, but after selling it, decided that the exciting developments in the world of mobile apps offered a bigger opportunity.

“I wanted to get back to Yorkshire,” he says. “That coincided with the launch of the iPhone and I knew there was a massive opportunity. Things were about to happen! I had a chance meeting with Ben in 2010 in the Media Centre cafe and found we shared a view of where apps were heading and how we could create a specialist business focused purely on apps. We looked at the ‘risks and rewards’ and decided there was an opportunity.”

Ben, 39, who lives at Slaithwaite, studied product design at Huddersfield University before joining greeting cards giant Hallmark where he was involved in its developing digital business. His role took him to Boston, Massachusetts, where he saw “lots of future technology”.

Ben moved to telecoms firm Orange as a designer and became design manager. “That’s where I cut my teeth developing mobile apps,” he says. “But I was in a corporate world working with a lot of agencies. Eventually, I decided that if I didn’t get out soon, it would be too late.

“I left Orange and became a consultant, starting in the Media Centre in 2005.”

Simon says: “We both saw that apps were the way to go. The big ‘buzz’ for the past 10 years has been the full service agency, which did a lot of things but didn’t necessarily do all those things at a specialist level. We are all about mobile applications, so we don’t tread on anyone else’s toes.”

Ben Childs and Simon Howship of Common Agency, Media Centre, Huddersfield.

Says Ben: “Companies wanted apps, but they didn’t know why! We are designing these things for a purpose and to provide the customer with a return on their investment.

“It’s about partnerships. A lot of agencies are about short-term relationships, but we get involved with the business and find out what their products are about and help develop a long-term strategy.”

Says Simon: “Apps are about a continual conversation, adding new features. You are never standing still. There’s new hardware and software coming in on a daily basis.

“It has to be a journey. If someone wants us to build an app and go away again that’s quite unattractive to us. The customer needs a road map. Everything we build has the end-user in mind and we try not to lose sight of that. We keep things as simple as we can and as intuitive as we can.”

Says Ben: “Companies may have a good technical team who are focused on developing a website, but mobile expertise is quite different. We want to create apps that provide the right level of customer experience.

“I use an app to pay for my parking in Huddersfield,” says Ben. “It’s an example of an app that’s functional and enhances the user experience.”

He says: “We have found that in every single instance, of all the users of an app, a big percentage have never transacted with that brand before.”

Says Simon: “When I started with PC World, they were true ‘destination’ stores. People would travel to buy from a store. Now customers will go looking online and if you are not there, your competitors will take that business.”

In the past three years, Common Agency has taken on four apprentices.. Now it is looking to recruit four more developers this year.

Says Ben: “The right talent is hard to find, but we nurture that talent. It is a very specialist skill.

“We are really passionate about what we do. This is where we have got to in our lives. That chance meeting ended up with us doing this together. The people who work with us are just as excited and passionate and put their all into it.”

Away from the technology, Simon enjoys the simple pleasures of life. “My life revolves around dog walking and getting out into the countryside,” he says. “I go stomping across the moors with our labrador, Rushkin.”

Ben and his wife Kate have two children Ewan, 17, and India, eight. “I am a keen photographer and cyclist,” says Ben. “I’m into creative photography and use technology to try things out. I commute by cycle a couple of days a week.

“One of the big positives about the business is that we can be flexible. Simon and I can be testing apps at three o’clock in the morning if necessary.”

Commenting on its London office, Simon says: “A lot of the big brands are based down there. To have a conversation with them, we have to have a presence there.

“We are down there on a fortnightly or weekly basis. People in London love our northern ‘openness’. But they expect you to deliver – and we understand that because we have both been involved in big corporate business.”

Work: Mobile app design and development

Site: Media Centre, Northumberland

Street, Huddersfield

Phone: 01484 437454

Email: hello@commonagency.com

Web: www.commonagency.com